Description

The Ask Me Anything (AMA) plugin lets you add a form on your website where users can ask you questions anonymously.

The AMA plugin uses the shortcode [askmeanythingpeople] to add the form. It also lists the questions and answers neatly. There are 20 attributes and few example configurations are listed towards the end of this description.

The included shortcode generator lets you easily configure and customize the shortcode. You will find it in WordPress Admin > Settings > Ask Me Anything (see screenshots page). All you have to do to create the AMA page, is to install the plugin, and copy the shortcode from the generator into a page or post.

AMA saves questions as WordPress comments. So comments have to be enabled on the page or post. You can use the shortcode on a text widget by using the page ID of the page or post in the post_or_page_id attribute of the shortcode. Please refer to the Installation page for more details.

Questions from users can be found along with your WordPress comments in WordPress Admin > Comments. You can reply to them here. Depending on your settings in Settings > Discussion, new questions will be held for moderation (if ‘Comment author must have a previously approved comment’ is checked) and you will be notified via email (if ‘Anyone posts a comment’ or ‘A comment is held for moderation’ is checked).

Main Features:

Questions and answers are WordPress comments. New database tables are not created.

Fully customizable using 20 shortcode attributes.

Easy to use shortcode generator in Settings > Ask Me Anything.

Compatible with most themes out of the box since it mostly uses WordPress default styles.

Note: This assumes that 123 is the page or post id that is the dedicated Ask Me Anything page.
Refer the ‘Installation’ page for more details.`

Complete Attribute List With Default Values

Here are all the available attributes and their default values.

post_or_page_id="0"
latest_first="true"
anonymous_name="Someone"
success_text="Your question is saved and will appear when it is answered."
question_box_title="Your Question"
placeholder="In the spirit of keeping it anonymous please do not leave any personal information."
test_question="What is 7+5?"
test_answer="12"
ask_button_text="Ask Anonymously"
answer_list_title="Answers So Far.."
no_answers_text="Be the first to ask!"
questions_per_page="10"
avatar="monsterid"
avatar_size="96"
show_question_box="true"
show_answers="true"
show_navigation="true"
show_test_question="true"
show_do_action="false"
give_thanks="false"

Please read the Installation page and FAQ page for more information. If you still have questions, please the Support page for help, bug reports and new feature requests.

If you like my plugin, please rate it and give me credit by setting the give_thanks attribute to true (default is false) in the shortcode. Thanks!

Screenshots

Ask Me Anything Shortcode Generator in Settings > Ask Me Anything.

Easily Stlye Your AMA Page With Custom CSS.

A Sample Ask Me Anything Page.

A Sidebar Widget Showing Recent Questions And Their Answers.

Installation

To Install This Plugin:

Install the plugin through the WordPress admin interface, or upload the plugin folder to /wp-content/plugins/ using ftp.

Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ screen in WordPress. On a Multisite you can either network activate it or let users activate it individually.

Add a new Page / Post and make sure comments are enabled. Refer FAQ if you do not know how to enable comments.

Paste the shortcode that you generated in step 1 and publish the page. You will have your brand new Ask Me Anything page.

To Add The Form Into A Widget:

Questions are saved as WordPress comments and all comments need to be associated with a page or a post. So you need to create a page or a post with the Ask Me Anything form as described in the previous steps.

Add a new Page / Post and make sure comments are enabled. Refer FAQ if you do not know how to enable comments.

Paste the shortcode that you generated in step 1 and publish the page. You will have your brand new Ask Me Anything page.

To Add The Form Into A Widget:

Questions are saved as WordPress comments and all comments need to be associated with a page or a post. So you need to create a page or a post with the Ask Me Anything form as described in the previous steps.

No. Since the plugin saves questions and answers as WordPress comments, it needs to be associated with a page or post. However, once you have it on a page, you can add the form as a sidebar widget as well.

How do I enable comments on a page?

Edit the page or post and on the top right corner click on ‘Screen Options’.

In the drawer that drops down, check ‘Discussion’. Close the drawer by clicking on ‘Screen Options’ again.

In the ‘Discussion’ meta box, check ‘Allow comments’.

Publish / Update the page.

My sidebar widget shows the shortcode instead of the AMA form

Add this to the functions.php of your theme to enable shortcode rendering on sidebar widgets.

add_filter('widget_text','do_shortcode');

I get an ‘Empty CAPTCHA’ error when I sumbit a question. What do I do?

This probably comes from a captcha plugin that adds it to the comment form. In Settings > Ask Me Anything set ‘Additional Form Elements’ to ‘Show’ along with all the other options you want. Then copy paste the new shortcode into your page / post. This will display the captcha and the user can fill it up at the time of submitting the question.